[The mystery, however, has been recently solved by Mr A. Leake, of Tarneit1 (who by the way has been a heavy loser), who has found that the blue flowered creeping lobelia is responsible for the damage. Mr Leake noticed this hitherto strange plant flourishing profusely, particularly in low lying lands, and, suspecting this weed might be the cause of the mortality in his cattle, forwarded a specimen to Baron von Mueller, with the result already indicated. The Baron also informed Mr Leake that it was a similar weed that had proved very destructive for some years back amongst the cattle depasturing on the Geelong town common.2]
Lobelia
Vic, c. 8 km north of Werribee.
M's letter not found. For M's reference to the 'Geelong common', see M to J. Casey, 23 March 1873 (in this edition as 73-03-23c).
Letter not found. The text given here is from Geelong advertiser, 1 February 1883, p. 2. The news item begins 'For some time past farmers in the Werribee district have been suffering the loss of several of their best cows, and no reasons could be attributed as to the cause of the increase in the deaths, as the stock dropping off had the appearance of being quite healthy and thriving'.
Wyndham Shire Councillor Alfred Leake, farmer, is the probable correspondent but has not been positively identified.
Please cite as “FVM-83-01-00d,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on